U.S. Pat. No. 5,185,351 describes processes for the preparation of imidazole compounds. One of the processes described in this application is the reaction of an aldehyde with a substituted half-acid, half-ester derivative of a malonate. Although this process produces the imidazoles claimed therein, there was a need to improve this process when preparing compounds, such as eprosartan, on a commercial scale.
It has now been found that eprosartan can be prepared by reacting 4-[(2-n-butyl-5-formyl-1H-imidazol-1-yl)methyl]benzoic acid or the bisulfite addition compound of 4-[(2-n-butyl-5-formyl-1H-imidazol-1-yl)methyl]benzoic acid (PCT Application WO 95/32189) with (2-thienylmethyl)propanedioic acid, mono-ethyl ester to produce eprosartan efficiently in high yield and high purity. The efficiency of this process and the quality and yield of the imidazole product are particularly important when preparing said product on a large scale for therapeutic use.